Metro network transport platforms must be compact, scalable, and agile to conquer the specific challenges of this key portion of the transport network. Growing and shifting traffic in the metro has triggered these challenges.

Today’s cloud-optimized metro network transport platforms “must” be:

Compact – with optimal power and performance in a form factor that meets metro operational cost targets

Scalable – to have the capacity you need when you need it to aggregate and transport multiple, high-performance services

Agile and intelligent – to dynamically reconfigure network resources to get services to your customers faster

Many consumers view SMS as an essential function of their phone. From a service provider perspective though, it is one of the more highly utilized and profitable value added services, with an estimated over 6 trillion SMS’s sent in 2010. What’s going on with this seemingly basic function?

While I have the AT&T navigator app on my Blackberry and have had it for some time, I never used it until, amazingly enough, I needed it twice in the same week this past December. I always just either printed out directions from Mapquest or took my old Garmin with me when I needed this kind of thing. Well, in December I needed it since I didn’t have either of them since, well, I knew where I was going!

A couple of weeks ago, I discussed the use of iPhones in the enterprise and mentioned iPads will runneth over the enterprise, but many will end up not being used. In fact, if CES from last week is any indication, tablets of all sorts will descend upon us like locusts (and depending on your point of view, it could be a plague).

What did I mean, though, when I said that many iPads would end up not being fully utilized?

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog about people using their smartphones in ways I’ve never seen before during a key shopping trip, namely comparison shopping by taking pictures of barcodes. And since I witnessed that on more than one occasion, I figured this must be taking off. So I did some research yesterday figuring that since the holidays are over, some articles and/or research would have been written on this.

In my top predictions for 2011 blog last week, I predicted iPads will overrun the enterprise. One reason is that people just think they are cool so they’ll “want” one. I also predict a measureable segment of these people in the enterprise will end up just putting them in their filing cabinet. Next week I will explore that a bit.

Last week, I looked back at the 10 most impactful telecom advances of the last decade. In this blog, I will look forward and make some predictions for what 2011 holds. And then to differentiate myself, in one year’s time, I’ll score myself and see if I got anything remotely right!

Last week, I was asked by Voice & Data in India to contribute to an article they’re publishing in January on the “Top 10 Technologies in the last decade that have Transformed the Telecom Sector.” This was an interesting exercise for me, and really got me thinking.

While 10 years is not a huge amount of time, the past 10 years have quite possibly been the most incredible in terms of technological achievements in the telecom industry since the invention of the telephone. Yes, I know moving to digital from analog and the first wireless networks were innovative, but when looking at an entire 10 year span, the advancements are astounding.

In the US, your mobile phone is kind of your lifeblood – it can be your on ramp to the internet, your communication vehicle with your kids via texting, your only phone, your TV, your watch (who even remembers wearing a watch!), and your boarding pass. And as per my blog last week, it can even comparison shop for you! I’ve even read some articles where the hotel industry is enabling your phone to be your key to your hotel room so you don’t even have to wait in line to check in!

For the past few years, I’ve enjoyed Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving in the US when the best shopping sales are) from the relative safety of my computer. For yes, even the Black Friday deals are found on the internet. But I did venture out. And amid the chaos, as I stood around waiting for my wife to find something, I noticed someone else doing something seemingly very strange.